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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25732723">You Are The Best Thing That’s Ever Been Mine</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/morganofthewildfire/pseuds/morganofthewildfire'>morganofthewildfire</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Throne of Glass Series - Sarah J. Maas</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Based on a Taylor Swift Song, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Swearing</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 12:29:30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,380</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25732723</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/morganofthewildfire/pseuds/morganofthewildfire</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Rowaelin fanfiction based off of Taylor Swift’ song “Mine”.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Aelin Ashryver Galathynius | Celaena Sardothien &amp; Rowan Whitethorn, Aelin Ashryver Galathynius | Celaena Sardothien/Rowan Whitethorn</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>66</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>You Are The Best Thing That’s Ever Been Mine</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Aelin burst through the front door, covering her mouth to stifle the sobs. She ran out to the middle of the street and collapsed to her knees, unable to hold herself up anymore. She knew she shouldn’t be out this late, it was the middle of the night and the outside was barely lit up by streetlights, but she couldn’t stay in that house anymore. Couldn’t bear to look at Rowan’s angry face for one more minute. She had ruined everything, she knew it. She had squashed her only chance of happiness and now there was no way to get it back. She cried harder at the thought. She shouldn’t be surprised, everyone in her life ended up leaving her, but she had thought he might be different. Had hoped he might be different. If only she wasn’t a complete screw up maybe she wouldn’t have to find out she had been wrong. In her desperation, her mind turned back to the first day they met.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em> Aelin walked into the dingy diner, claiming her usual seat in the corner. She liked to come here to pretend she had some form of freedom, give herself a chance to get away from her house and her drunk foster father. She was 18, and could therefore legally move out, but she didn’t have nearly enough money saved up and had no real way to get more. So she was stuck for now. She had just finished up her senior year of high school and was planning on going to the nearby community college to avoid taking out too many loans, but staying nearby meant staying with Arobynn. She was startled out of her thoughts by an unfamiliar voice.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> “Hi, I’m Rowan and I’ll be your server today.” She blinked and looked up at the owner of the voice. Gods, he was hot. He had piercing green eyes, short hair that was somehow silver, and a complex black tattoo that stretched down his muscular arm. Aelin only realized she was staring when the person in question coughed pointedly. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>“Sorry,” she quickly said, blushing slightly, “Are you new here? I haven’t seen you before.” He definitely was new, she would’ve remembered a face and a body like his. He smiled slightly at her. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>“Yep, I just moved here from Allsbrook, about an hour south. I’m taking classes at the community college.” Her eyebrows shot up incredulously.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> “You moved from a small town to another small town? Why on earth would you do that?” He chuckled at her disbelief.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> “Oh and I suppose you’re one of those big city girls, right? Can’t wait to leave this life behind?” His words sounded mocking but the smile still on his lips made it more teasing than accusatory. She rolled her eyes in the same teasing manner. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>“I don’t care where I go, I just want to get out of here,” she replied simply, knowing with her whole heart it was true. She would move to Perranth, to Rifthold, to fucking Eyllwe if she had to, she just needed to get out of Orynth and away from the hands of her foster father. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>“And why is that?” Rowan replied, his turn to be incredulous at how sharp her tone was. Aelin tucked away the darkness that threatened to creep out at her thoughts and smiled teasingly at him. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>“Well I can’t tell you all my secrets right away,” she said in a playful tone, her eyebrows rising suggestively. Rowan smiled fully that time and it took her breath away.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> “Some other time then,” he replied, in the same playful manner with a hint of seriousness that made it clear he wasn’t kidding.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> “Some other time,” she confirmed, still a little breathless. He winked at her and turned to walk away. “Wait! You haven’t taken my order yet.” He turned his head to look back at her but kept walking. </em>
</p>
<p><em>“My shift ends in 30 minutes. Wait until then and I’ll take you somewhere else to eat.” She nodded and smiled a little shyly and shifted to look out the window, excited for the first time in what felt like forever</em>.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Aelin smiled a little at the memory, despite where their relationship was now. Rowan had kept his promise. Once his shift was over he had taken her to a hole-in-the-wall burger place on the other side of town. They had talked and laughed for about two hours and Rowan had left with a kiss on her hand and his number written on a napkin. Her buzzard was always more of a gentleman than he gave himself credit for. Not her buzzard anymore, she thought painfully, causing the tears to start streaming down her face with even more fervor. She remembered the butterflies she had felt back then with clarity, the nerves before their first official date alone had threatened to swallow her whole.<br/><br/></p>
<p>
  <em>Aelin stood in front of her open closet, still unsure of what to wear after thirty minutes of contemplation. Rowan and her had been texting every day since their lunch the previous week, and he had asked her out to dinner tonight. There weren’t many restaurants in Orynth, and none of them were fancy, so it wasn’t like her outfit had to be spectacular, but the hoodie and athletic shorts he had seen her in last week were not exactly the only impression she wanted to give. In the end, she decided on dark wash denim shorts and an army green tank top, paired with her usual white Converse, well, knock off Converse, real ones were too expensive. It was casual, but cute enough. She hoped. Gods she was nervous. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>When she checked her phone and saw she had ten minutes until when they agreed to meet, she raced down the stairs and toward the door. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>“Arobynn, I’m going out,” she shouted. She refused to call him dad, despite living with him for a decade. No one in her life had deserved that title, not even her biological father who had proven that shared DNA doesn’t always guarantee love. She got a grunt of acknowledgement as a response, from somewhere on the opposite side of the house. She wasn’t surprised. He had probably just started his drinking for the evening so he wasn’t riled up enough yet to even pretend to care about what she was doing. Aelin was glad of it, though. She just hoped she could sneak back in later without gaining his drunken attention. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>She exited the house and raced down the street to the park they had agreed to meet at. She wasn’t quite ready to show Rowan the cesspool of a house she lived in, or the sorry excuse of a parent she lived with. When she saw he was already there she smiled and slowed her pace as she walked up to him. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>“Hey,” he called out, with a little wave. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>“Hey yourself,” she replied, “so where are you taking me this fine evening?” He smiled a little nervously, rousing her suspicion slightly. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>“I was planning on just making you dinner at my apartment, if that’s okay. I know there’s not a lot of exciting restaurants here and I’m actually a pretty good cook. But if you don’t want to, that's fine, we can go somewhere else.” He was rambling, easily showcasing how worried he was that she would say no. She just smiled even bigger. </em>
</p>
<p><em>“That sounds perfect</em>.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>And it was perfect. The dinner Rowan made was delicious, and he became the main chef in their relationship from there on out. Aelin sighed. The food they had eaten just hours ago had been made by him, and they had even curled up on the couch just like they did after that first date, although the slightly awkward distance between them then was nonexistent now. But that was before the screaming match that caused him to threaten a break up and her to storm out of their house.</p>
<p>It wasn’t like they had never fought before, they fought all the time actually, but this was one time too many, and combined with all of the stress they had both been going through recently, it had pushed them both over the edge. If only she hadn’t bought those stupid concert tickets. She knew they were in debt and couldn’t afford frivolous things, but she had gotten them to try and surprise Rowan. She knew he was stressed even more than her and had wanted to give him a nice present. She hadn’t thought about how expensive they were until they had been delivered, and she had discovered they were nonrefundable when she tried to send them back. She had tried to hide them from him, but he found them and had immediately gotten angry. Aelin longed for the days when her only worries in their relationship were what she should wear to their dates. They hadn’t even been on a date in months, instead cooking food at home to save money.</p>
<p>Her tears were slowly stopping, but the crippling despair was kicking in and she found she couldn’t move from her spot on the street. It was a good thing they chose a house in a quiet neighborhood with no cars driving at this time of night. She was so angry at herself, at her idiocy. Rowan had once promised to stay with her forever, but her incompetence had finally driven him away. She remembered the day he swore that clearly, the day everything had changed between them.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>Aelin rushed out of the house, clutching her bleeding nose. Her unshed tears were blurring her vision, but she knew the way to Rowan’s apartment by heart. They had been dating for about three months and they always hung out at his place, never hers. She tried to keep the extent of Arobynn’s cruelty to herself, but she was desperate now and had nowhere else to go, even if it meant Rowan finding out. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>She reached Rowan’s door about ten minutes later and banged loudly on it. It was around midnight, but they had just gotten home from their date less than an hour ago, so she figured he was still up. She was proven right when he opened the door. He was in his sleep clothes and looked tired, but his eyes immediately became alert when he saw her.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> “Aelin! What happened?” He asked, alarmed, and pulled her inside his apartment, shutting the door behind them. She broke down then, collapsing into his arms and sobbing. He held her for a few minutes, trying to comfort her, before moving them over to the couch and setting her down, then going to the kitchen to get a damp towel. When he returned, Aelin had dried away some of her tears, although new ones were still flowing, but at a slower rate. Rowan knelt in front of her and lifted the towel to her face, wiping away the blood that was streaming down her chin. They stayed silent for a few moments as he examined her broken nose. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>“You really should go to the hospital for this,” he said finally. She shook her head immediately. The hospital would ask too many questions, and she couldn’t afford the bills anyway. “Okay,” he said, not wanting to upset her, “but I don’t have much experience setting breaks, so it’ll probably still be a little crooked once it heals.”</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> “That’s fine,” she said in an unsteady voice, “thank you”. He nodded once before reaching up to grasp both sides of her nose, snapping it into place quickly. She winced at the pain, but said nothing. Once he was sure it was fine, he sat next to her on his couch and pulled her onto his lap.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> “Who did this to you?” He asked in a soft, concerned voice. She sucked in a deep, calming breath, trying to quell her emotions for the truth she was about to tell.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> “Arobynn,” she whispered, not looking him in the eyes. He sucked in a short breath. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>“What?” he responded, with shock and disbelief in his voice. His distress caused new tears to fall as she buried her still hurting face in his chest. She knew she needed to tell him the whole truth, so she started at the beginning. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>“I haven’t been entirely honest with you,” she admitted, “My parents didn’t die in a car crash.” He stayed silent, waiting for her to explain how that was related to her current injury. “When I was eight, my parents got a divorce. It was a super nasty affair, and it ruined our family. Normally, in a divorce, the parents get split custody over their children, so I figured that was what would happen.” She dreaded this next part, afraid to say it out loud, but the strength of Rowan’s arms around her gave her courage to continue. Even so, her voice was shaky. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>“Turns out, neither of them wanted me, so they both relinquished custody of me over to my dad’s old business partner, Arobynn. I was so young that I didn’t understand why I wasn’t going with either of them when they both left Orynth. I cried for weeks.” Rowan started running a hand over her hair, combing it gently in a soothing yet supportive manner. “The drinking started right away, and with the drinking came his temper. I tried to make the situation better for myself, doing my best to make him happy. I used to try and make him dinner or clean the house or even draw him pictures when I was really young, but everything I did just seemed to make him upset. The hitting started when I was thirteen. He started falling off the deep end with his alcoholism and he took his anger out on me. I tried to get him in trouble for it originally, but the police department in this stupid town is so incompetent, and every attempt just made it worse. I stopped trying and it’s been like this ever since.” She looked up at Rowan and saw tears dripping down his face too, no doubt remembering every small bruise or cut she explained away as accidents. She reached up and brushed them away with her thumb.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>“Gods, I am so, so sorry, Fireheart. I had no idea.” His voice was drowned in sorrow and pain. They sat there silently for another few minutes, holding each other, before he spoke again. “Move in with me,” he said, his tone slightly hesitant. Aelin looked at him in shock. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>“We’ve only been dating for three months,” she said incredulously. He just smiled down at her softly. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>“Move in with me,” he repeated, stronger than before. She shook her head slightly, overwhelmed. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>“I - I don’t have a job, I don’t have any money to pay you for rent or for food or anything like that. I’d just be a burden.” She looked away, but he tilted her chin up gently.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> “Fireheart, you’d never be a burden. We may not have much money, but we’ll figure it out as we go,” he said confidently, “you’re 18, you’re free to move wherever you want, and I can’t stand the thought of you going back to that house.” She sniffed, emotions overtaking her again, and nodded. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>“Okay,” she said weakly, but smiled at him, “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, I just couldn’t stand the possibility of you leaving me, like everyone else.”</em>
</p>
<p><em> “Aelin,” he said, suddenly very serious, “I will never leave you. To whatever end</em>.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Aelin sat on the asphalt in silence, stuck in her memories. It had been about five years since then. They were both out of college now and were renting a house in Doranelle, an ocean away from Orynth. They had talked about marriage, with no solid plans really being made. They were happy. But she had thought her parents were happy too. Maybe that’s how her life would always be, the illusion of happiness before everything came crashing down.</p>
<p>Footsteps behind her caught her attention, but she didn’t turn around or bother trying to wipe her tears. She just sat there unmoving, staring at the ground.</p>
<p>“If you’re going to leave me, just go,” she said without looking, too drained to sound angry. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Rowan walk over and sit down next to her, not touching but close enough to feel his warmth. He sighed.</p>
<p>“I’m sorry, Fireheart.” She looked over in shock, revealing the tear tracks and mascara stains dripping down her cheeks.</p>
<p>“<em>Your</em> sorry?” she said, confused, “I’m the one who needs to be apologizing. I was being an idiot and I should’ve thought more about what I was doing. I was so focused on getting you a present that I didn’t even realize the impacts of how much I was spending.” He said nothing for a few moments, still staring off in the distance just like she had been.</p>
<p>“Do you remember our fifth or so date?” He finally said, earning another confused look. “When I took us out into Oakwald and we found that little stream?” She nodded, but he still wasn’t looking at her. “I was sitting on the bank, and you were wading in the water looking for rocks. I had been enjoying the peace, which you occasionally disrupted with your crude humor.” She actually chuckled slightly at that, despite the situation. “And then, after a little bit, you had grabbed a rock out of the stream and handed it to me. It was heart shaped, and as you were passing it over you said ‘don’t break it’. It was the cheesiest thing I had ever heard, but you were fucking beaming at me so I didn’t say anything. Then you climbed out of the water and sat down by me, curling into my side. I threw my arm around you and reveled in the fact that you were letting me hold you. You had been so reserved around me before then, for reasons I know now.” Arobynn was the reason for that, and her parents. She had been so afraid to open up to someone else, but she remembered feeling a sort of warmth that day and wanted to be close to him. “But that day you let me hold you, and that’s when I knew you were the love of my life.”</p>
<p>She started crying again, more out of happiness than sorrow, but the argument was still lingering despite his words.</p>
<p>“Gods, I’m so sorry for yelling at you, for even thinking of breaking up,” he continued, shaking his head in frustration with himself, “I’ve just been so stressed about money recently and I took it out on you when I know you were just trying to do something caring and loving like you always are.”</p>
<p>“Ro, I know we still have some debts, and payments we’re a little behind on, and, trust me, I know I shouldn’t have bought those tickets, but why <em>have</em> you been so tense about it all lately? We’ve been doing better, we’re more secure than we were a few years ago.” He finally looked her way, and she was shocked to see him blushing slightly. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small velvet box that had her gasping and covering her mouth with a shaky hand.</p>
<p>“Rings are expensive,” he said sheepishly, “I know we’ve talked about marriage before and we’ve never really come to anything solid, but gods I want you to be my wife. I love you, Fireheart, you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I once promised you I’d never leave you, and I would like to have the chance to prove it.” He opened the box to reveal a beautiful gold ring with a single emerald adorning it. It was perfect. “So, Aelin, will you marry me?”</p>
<p>All she could do was nod rapidly and get out one strangled “yes”, too emotional to say anything else. He smiled the biggest smile she’d ever seen and took her left hand gently, sliding the ring onto her finger. She glanced up from where their hands were connected to look him in the eyes. “To whatever end?” She asked.</p>
<p>“To whatever end.”</p>
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